Whoops! Banksy graffiti scrubbed by council after racism complaint

By Laura Smith-Spark, CNN

Updated 9:14 AM ET, Thu October 2, 2014

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

In June 2016 elusive UK street artist Banksy painted this mural for students at a primary school in his hometown of Bristol, England. Students had named a house at their school for the artist, who surprised them with the mural when they returned from a holiday break. Here's a look at some other notable Banksy works.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

On January 25, a new mural by street artist Banksy appeared on the French Embassy in London, criticising the French authorities' reported use of teargas in a refugee camp in Calais, France. A riff on the iconic Les Misérables poster, it shows a young girl enveloped by CS gas, crying.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

A mural of a weeping woman, painted by the British street artist Banksy, is seen in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on Wednesday, April 1. The mural was painted on a door of a house destroyed last summer during the fighting between Israel and Hamas. The owner of the house said he was tricked into selling the door for the equivalent of $175, not realizing the painting was by the famously anonymous artist.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

A Palestinian child stands next to a Banksy mural of a kitten on the remains of a destroyed house in Beit Hanoun, Gaza, in February 2015.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

A child in Beit Hanoun walks past a mural February 2015 that depicts children using an Israeli watchtower as a swing ride.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

A Banksy mural depicting pigeons holding anti-immigration signs was destroyed by the local council in Clacton-on-Sea, England, in October 2014 after the council received complaints that the artwork was offensive.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

A Banksy work appears at a youth center in Bristol, England, in April 2014. Called "Mobile Lovers," it features a couple embracing while checking their cell phones. Members of the youth center took down the piece from a wall on a Bristol street and replaced it with a note saying the work was being held at the club "to prevent vandalism or damage being done." The discovery came shortly after another image believed to be by Banksy surfaced in Cheltenham, England.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

A boy walks past graffiti street art believed to be by Banksy in April 2014. The image depicts men in trench coats and dark glasses holding old-fashioned listening equipment -- apparently a commentary on government surveillance. The artwork appeared on the side of a house in Cheltenham near the Government Communications Headquarters, the UK equivalent of the National Security Agency.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

A set of balloons that reads "BANKSY!" is seen off the Long Island Expressway in Queens, New York, in October 2013. Banksy artwork appeared all over New York that month.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

Banksy also offered up a T-shirt design on his website for fans to download and print on their own.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

A leopard placed on the wall of New York's Yankee Stadium was revealed in October 2013.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

"The Banality of the Banality of Evil" actually started out as a thrift store painting in New York City. Once altered by Banksy, who inserted an image of a Nazi officer sitting on a bench, it was re-donated to the store in October 2013, according to the artist's site.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

Banksy's art exhibit "Grim Reaper Bumper Car" sits on New York's Lower East Side in October 2013. The famously anonymous artist, whose paintings regularly go for six figures at auction houses around the world, said he was on a "residency on the streets of New York."

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

A Banksy piece covers the main entrance to Larry Flynt's Hustler Club in New York's Hell's Kitchen in October 2013.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

Banksy's replica of the Great Sphinx of Giza was made in Queens out of smashed cinder blocks.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

Banksy's "Ghetto 4 Life" appeared in the Bronx in October 2013. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggested that Banksy was breaking the law with his guerrilla art exhibits, but the New York Police Department denied it was actively searching for him.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

Banksy art is seen on the Upper West Side of New York in October 2013.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

Banksy work in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, was vandalized in broad daylight in October 2013.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

One of Banksy's pieces is this fiberglass sculpture of Ronald McDonald having his shoes shined in front of a Bronx McDonald's.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

Graffiti depicting the Twin Towers popped up in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York in October 2013.

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Banksy's "Sirens of the Lambs" art installation tours the streets of Manhattan in October 2013. It was a fake slaughterhouse delivery truck full of stuffed animals.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

Banksy's "Concrete Confessional" is seen on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

A Banksy mural is seen on a wall in Queens. The quote is from the movie "Gladiator." It says, "What we do in life echoes in eternity."

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

A woman poses with Banksy's painting of a heart-shaped balloon covered in bandages. The piece, in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, was defaced with red spray paint shortly after it was completed.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

A Banksy mural of a dog urinating on a fire hydrant draws attention

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

This installation, seen in October 2013, on the Lower East Side of New York, depicts stampeding horses in night-vision goggles. Thought to be a commentary on the Iraq War, it also included an audio soundtrack.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

Gallery assistants adjust Banksy's "Love Is in the Air" ahead of an auction in London in June 2013. The piece was sold for $248,776.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

"The Crayola Shooter" is found in Los Angeles in 2011. It shows a child wielding a machine gun and using crayons for bullets.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

People walk past a Banksy painting of a dog urinating on a wall in Beverly Hills, California, in 2011.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

Banksy murals popped up around New Orleans a day before the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in 2008.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

A silhouette of a child holding a refrigerator-shaped kite is seen on a wall in New Orleans in 2008.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

Graffiti on the side of a building in New Orleans shows an elderly person in a rocking chair under the banner, "No Loitering," in 2008.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

A scene titled "Chicken Nuggets," from Banksy's "The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill," is seen in New York in 2008.

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Photos:Banksy, the elusive street artist

A man walks past a Banksy piece in London in 2006.

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A stenciled image of two policemen kissing is seen in London in 2005.

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Story highlights

Council graffiti team in Clacton-on-Sea removes a Banksy image from a seafront building

An election is taking place after a local MP defected to UKIP, which wants to limit migration

Council spokesman says Banksy is welcome to return any time to do an "appropriate" work

What do you do if a potentially valuable Banksy graffiti work appears on one of your buildings? If you're the local council in the English seaside resort of Clacton-on-Sea, the answer is: remove it fast.

The image, painted in Banksy's distinctive style on a nondescript seafront building, showed a group of pigeons holding signs saying "Migrants not welcome," "Go back to Africa" and "Keep off our worms" directed at a more exotically plumed bird.

To most observers, it would appear to be a sharp piece of social commentary highlighting anti-immigration rhetoric, but it sparked a complaint Tuesday to the local council that it was itself offensive and racist.

The Tendring District Council's graffiti team moved in, and as of Wednesday morning, the Banksy was no more, the council's communications manager, Nigel Brown, told CNN.

Banksy's social comment comes at a sensitive time in local politics. A special election is taking place on October 9, triggered by the defection of the Essex district's member of Parliament from the Conservative Party to UKIP.

It was only after the council was contacted by the media over a photo of the work on Banksy's website that the council realized what it had -- briefly -- had, Brown said. All that remains is a discolored smudge on the wall.

"We would obviously welcome an appropriate Banksy original on any of our seafronts and would be delighted if he returned in the future," he said.

An "appropriate" work would have to be something that would fit into a "family seaside resort," he said.

The words on the mural could have caused distress, Brown added, if the reader did not understand the irony. "It's not the sort of thing we would want to be on one of our own buildings in Clacton," he said.

Other Banksy artworks have become tourist attractions in their own right or have been snapped up by collectors willing to spend big bucks.